Discovery
by Krystal McKenna
Summary: Beast Boy discovers Raven's secret hobby! Read to find out what happens. BB/Rae.


NOTE: I'm doing something unprecedented and editing one of my oneshots. That's right. If you've read this before, I'm sure you'll find it. If you haven't read it, ignore this note! (Oh wait, too late… :P )

Insert witty disclaimer here.

* * *

Raven glided along the bottom of the swimming pool on the roof of Titans Tower. It was dark, the moon just a sliver in the night sky. Raven didn't want anyone around. She didn't swim… At least, not around anyone else. This was the one place where grey-cloaked Timid could rule.

She kicked to the surface and broke the water's surface with a gasp. She smoothed her short violet hair back and pressed out some of the water it had absorbed. She flicked the water from her eyes and opened them, their rich purple color shining in the lights that continually shone over the pool.

Suddenly she heard the click of the door onto the roof opening. She swam to the edge closest to the door and took a deep breath, allowing herself to sink to the bottom. She waited, but no one entered the water. Perhaps it had been Cyborg checking to be sure all was secure. About five minutes passed and her lungs started screaming for air, so she slid to the surface again. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again.

She gasped when she saw that Beast Boy sat beside the pool. In response to her shock, the lights around the perimeter of the pool flickered. "What are _you _doing here??" they both asked at the same time. Raven shut her mouth hard and waited for Beast Boy to answer first. He did. "Well, this might surprise you, but sometimes I like to swim with_out_ being a fish or a dolphin or whatever. With the others around I've got to be this or that and be showing off and blah blah blah…" he stopped. "So, what's your excuse?" he asked, letting his feet dangle in the water.

Raven bit her lip and rubbed her upper arm. She blushed a little, remembering that she was wearing a sleeveless version of her usual leotard. "I came to swim, okay?" she said, a little harsher than she meant. "I… don't swim around other people… usually."

She saw an infuriating smile creep across Beast Boy's face. "What is so funny?" she asked. Beast Boy pretended to be innocent. "One, I wasn't laughing, and two, I didn't know you liked to swim." Raven smirked. "That was kind of the point."

Just then, Raven noticed what Beast Boy was wearing: a pair of bright red swim trunks. She couldn't stop a sputtered laugh. "You look like a Christmas elf going on vacation," she said, trying to hold in her laughter. Beast Boy half-glared at her. "Aw, geez, give me a break. It's all Starfire's fault, you know. She's the one that insisted on buying all of us swim suits. Except you, apparently."

Raven rolled her eyes and bobbed a little in the water. "So…" she said slowly. "You coming in or not?" Beast Boy stood up. "If you're not going to put up a shield of that dark energy for me to smack into, why not?" He backed up a few paces and took a running leap, cannon-balling into the deep end of the pool.

Raven wiped a great lot of water from her face. "Care to soak me again?" she asked sarcastically. "Sorry," said Beast Boy. Raven just shook her head, turned and dove effortlessly into the water. When she surfaced, she realized that Beast Boy was staring at her. "What?" she asked. Beast Boy didn't answer for a moment, but then snapped out of it. "Sorry, just wow! You looked like a mermaid or something!" Raven raised an eyebrow, fighting away a blush. She swam to the opposite side of the pool and occupied herself for a while.

She surfaced after a particularly long immersion, and looked around for Beast Boy. He was nowhere to be seen. "Beast Boy?" she called softly. She dove in again, but opened her eyes underwater this time. She looked around. He wasn't there… at least not that she could see.

She surfaced again beside the edge of the pool. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around. Beast Boy stood behind her, a laughing look on his face. "Where were _you?" _Raven asked, trying not to sound as worried as she had been. "Around," said Beast Boy. Raven closed her eyes in an attempt to hold in her irritation.

She waited a moment before speaking. "Seriously," she began. "Why did you do that?"

"To bug you."

Raven glared at him. "Right." She turned and dove again.

This time when she surfaced, Beast Boy swam up to her. "Uh, Raven?" he asked. A snap jumped into her head, but Raven stopped herself from saying it. _Be nice,_ she told herself. "What?" She knew a little of her irritation had escaped. "It's just that I wanted to tell you that you should come up sometime when we're all swimming. It would be nice to see you once in a while." A confused look crossed Raven's face but vanished instantly. "What are you talking about? You see me all the time."

"Yeah, when we're fighting bad guys, duh. But I mean other than that." Beast Boy explained. "You're always in your room meditating and stuff and we don't see you just… around the Tower." He chuckled weakly. "And almost every time_ I _see you, you're telling me to leave you alone." Raven looked down. "Yeah, well, if I don't meditate… well, you don't want to know." She was deliberately avoiding her… opinion of Beast Boy.

"I understand that, but… still, I-- _we_'d like it if you'd just hang around, you know?" Raven nodded. "Yeah, I guess." They were silent for a while. Uncomfortable, Raven turned and dove into the quiet of the water. After a few moments, she bobbed to the surface. Beast Boy was again hiding. She rolled her eyes at the emptiness of the pool and swam to deeper water, where she floated on her back, thinking and wishing she could drown her lavender-cloaked emotion, which was fighting to be let out.

Suddenly she felt a tentacle wrap around her ankle and pulled her down into the water sharply. As she dunked, she gulped in a breath of air. Beast Boy pulled her to the bottom of the pool and then let go of her foot, morphing back to his human form. Raven beat it for the surface. Beast Boy popped up beside her. "You…" Raven panted. "Are such an… idiot sometimes!" Beast Boy grinned lopsidedly. "That's me!"

A wicked grin spread across Raven's face. "But I wonder if you can take some of your own medicine…" she said, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She dove in again, leaving Beast Boy with a confused look on his face, at least for a moment. With a yelp, Beast Boy disappeared beneath the water as well. Raven floated to the surface. When Beast Boy came sputtering to the surface, she couldn't help giggling at his expression. The lights flickered again, but she didn't notice.

Beast Boy's expression changed to playful annoyance and he pushed a wave of water at Raven, soaking her. She gasped and splashed him in return. Back and forth, they drenched each other and Raven finally sought refuge underwater. While swimming at the bottom, she felt a hand on her arm and opened her eyes to see Beast Boy swimming along beside her.

They swam back and forth; Beast Boy matching Raven's every move. Finally they both ran out of air and made for the surface. They popped up side by side, and Beast Boy smoothed Raven's hair back, his hand brushing her cheek he pulled it back. Raven looked at him with those deep pools of purple she had for eyes with a questioning expression. Timid was trying to sneak out, but she wouldn't allow it. "B-B-Beast Boy?" she asked. Beast Boy didn't say anything. Instead, he leaned forward and kissed her.

Raven was shocked and pulled back sharply. She felt a blush creeping over her cheeks. She didn't know what to say. "I-I… well… um," she stuttered. She shook her head and attempted to clear her cloudy thoughts. She didn't show it, but inside, lavender Love and pink Happy were nearly dancing with joy. Her heart thumped against her chest and she felt her face turn from pink to nearly crimson, and hurried to the edge of the pool. She pulled herself out of the water at the edge, but left her feet dangling in the water.

Beast Boy came up and sat beside her. "Raven?" he asked. "Are you okay?" Raven nodded silently, not allowing herself to speak. She looked Beast Boy straight in the eyes and willed him to understand. Although she had sweet lavender-cloaked Love among her emotions, Raven knew that it would be too dangerous if she allowed herself to… love. She stood up and headed for the door. "Rae," began Beast Boy, but Raven stopped him with a motion of her hand. "Tomorrow," she said softly as she slid through the door into the Tower and made for her room.

* * *

Just as she had hoped, Beast Boy figured out what Raven had meant when she said "Tomorrow". The next night, he was waiting for her beside the pool. She crossed the roof of the Tower and sat down beside Beast Boy. "I'm sorry I couldn't answer last night," Raven began. "I needed time to think." Beast Boy nodded. "So…?" he asked.

Raven bit her lip. She had wanted avoid talking about the last night. "You just surprised me, that's all." She paused. "Do you have any idea how stupid that was; how dangerous that kiss was?" Beast Boy looked confused.

"What do you mean?"

"My powers… if I had… I could've…"

With a concerned look, Beast Boy placed a hand over one of Raven's. "…killed you," Raven said in a barely perceptible whisper. Her voice gained a little strength with her next sentence. "And I would hate it if I did that." Beast Boy looked at her incredulously. "Really?" he asked. "I didn't think you liked me enough to care if I was around."

Raven's tone of voice was different than usual when she spoke again. "Are you kidding? You thought I didn't care? The truth is, I l—"she clapped a hand over her mouth. Love was trying to take over. Raven's eyes widened at the thought of what she had nearly revealed. "Raven?" asked Beast Boy. "Are you saying—" Raven just looked at him and tentatively pulled her hand away from her mouth.

"Do you… do you remember the Raven in lavender from when you were in my head?" She asked, back to her normal self. Beast Boy thought for a moment. "Uhhh…" he said. "I remember seeing her, but I didn't, like, talk to her or anything." A slightly frustrated look crossed Raven's face for a moment. "Well, she represents one of my emotions that... I'm really not sure of."

Hoping that he was doing the right thing, Beast Boy entwined his fingers in Raven's. Raven looked down with visible surprise. Noticing this, Beast Boy tried to pull his hand away, but Raven had closed her hand around his as well.

"La- lavender," she stammered. "S-stands for… she's… Love."

"Is… Lavender trying to… get out?"

Raven suddenly realized just what it was that she was indicating. "Beast Boy… I…" she stopped. Her mind was going a mile a minute as she processed her feelings. Finally, after three tense minutes, Raven put her other hand on Beast Boy's. "I think…" she paused. "Yes. La-- Love keeps trying to get out, but I can't… let her. I don't want to--" Beast Boy didn't let her finish, and took her last sentence completely wrong. "You don't want to… because it's me?" he said. He pulled his hand away. "Well, that's just great. I seem to have the worst luck with girls…" He stood up and started for the door.

Raven jumped up, still trying to get her powers of speech back. "Beast Boy, wait—" she started, but she was cut off by the closing door. She sat down in a chair beside the pool. "What have I done?" she whispered to herself, placing a hand on her forehead.

Beast Boy avoided Raven for the next week, and neither of them returned to the pool any of the nights. Everyone noticed that Beast Boy was keeping his distance. Starfire even asked about it. "Beast Boy, are you and Raven doing the fighting?" Beast Boy just frowned, turned into a mouse, and scurried to his room.

Finally Raven grew sick of this game and cornered Beast Boy in the hallway. She stuck his feet to the floor with dark energy. "Listen, Beast Boy, I—" Beast Boy cut her off. "Raven, I don't want to talk about it, I know that you can't like anyone like me." Raven threw him a withering frustrated glance. "Beast Boy, you don't listen!" She shook her head. "I never said I didn't want to let Love out! I was _going _to say that I didn't want to risk hurting you!" Beast Boy's expression softened. There was a slightly awkward silence. Finally Beast Boy spoke again. "You—I—what?"

Raven bit her lip. "Yeah, yeah, I know… Listen, will you meet me at the pool tonight?" She recalled her powers and freed Beast Boy's feet as he nodded yes.

That night, when the moon was at its highest, Raven waded into the water of the pool. She was again wearing her sleeveless version of her normal black leotard. She bounced on the balls of her feet and performed a perfect dive into the water.

After a few minutes, Raven was beginning to wonder if Beast Boy was going to come at all. She kicked to the side of the pool and sat on the edge, kicking her feet in the water. She sighed as the moon sank lower in the sky. Just as she was about to give up, the door opened. "Beast Boy!"

"I'm sorry I'm late! I fell asleep." He rushed over and sat beside her. Raven smirked, the closest to a smile Beast Boy had seen since… well, Malchior. "So, um, what's up?" asked Beast Boy, although he knew what was "up". Raven looked down and took Beast Boy's hand in both of hers. "I…" she began. "Beast Boy… what I want to say…" she seemed at a loss for words, a unique situation. "This is going so far from right," said Raven, shaking her head.

Beast Boy smiled at her and tightened his grip on Raven's hand. He realized that Raven wasn't used to talking about her feelings, and suddenly thought of a way to make speech unnecessary. He put his other hand along her cheek and brought her face up to his, their lips meeting.

At first, Raven was nervous and stiffened at his touch, but then she began to kiss him back. Beast Boy knew that she wasn't used to this sort of thing, and he was gentle and tentative with his kiss. Raven was inwardly thrilled that she was kissing Beast Boy, but also terrified at what her powers might do. It was amazing, but a scary kind of amazing. Slowly Raven started to relax into the kiss, and began to lose herself. Beast Boy teased her lips with his tongue; asking permission to enter her mouth. To his surprise, she allowed it. The lights around the pool suddenly shattered, but neither of them noticed. Completely falling into the kiss, Raven's hands left Beast Boy's and wrapped around his neck.

Beast Boy's hands moved to her hair and his fingers tangled in it. A few moments later, they broke apart with a gasp of air. Beast Boy caressed Raven's cheek again. "Beast Boy…" Raven began, but then Beast Boy stopped her. He stood up and pulled her with him to the east edge of the Tower. "The sun's about to come up," he whispered to her.

"Beast Boy," Raven said, this time not allowing him to stop her. "Are you okay? I mean, I didn't hurt you… did I?" Beast Boy shook his head. "I'm fine, Raven," he said. Raven rested her head on Beast Boy's shoulder. "Thank goodness." Beast Boy tipped his head to rest on hers as the sun came up, silhouetting the pair.


End file.
